Peasant, Tribal and Civil Uprisings PYQs – Modern History, SSC & Railway

Answer: Option 2 — Bengal
The Indigo Revolt (Neel Vidroha) of 1859–60 broke out in Bengal, starting in the Nadia district.
Ryots refused to grow indigo for European planters who forced it on them through advances and violence.
Revision note — Indigo Revolt, 1859–60
• Leaders: Digambar Biswas and Bishnu Biswas of Govindpur village, Nadia.
• Planters forced ryots to sign contracts (dadni advances) and grow indigo on their best land.
• The play Neel Darpan (Dinabandhu Mitra, 1860) showed the planters' cruelty; its English translation led to the trial of Rev. James Long.
• Harish Chandra Mukherjee backed the ryots in his paper Hindu Patriot.
• The government set up the Indigo Commission (1860), which ruled that ryots could not be forced to grow indigo.
• The planters then shifted to Bihar (Champaran), where Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha (1917) later took place.
Also asked from this topic: where the indigo planters moved after the revolt in Bengal (Bihar); the year of Gandhi's Champaran movement (1917).

Answer: Option 1 — Kerala
The Moplah (Mappila) Rebellion of 1921 broke out in the Malabar region, then part of the Madras Presidency and now in Kerala.
The Moplahs were Muslim tenant farmers who rose against British rule and landlords (jenmis).
Revision note — Moplah Rebellion (Malabar Rebellion), 1921
• Began in August 1921 in the Ernad and Valluvanad taluks of Malabar.
• Causes: high rents, insecure tenancy and eviction by jenmi landlords, backed by the British.
• It grew out of the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation agitation of 1920–21.
• Leaders included Variyamkunnath Kunjahammed Haji and Ali Musliyar.
• The Wagon Tragedy (November 1921) — about 60 Moplah prisoners suffocated in a closed railway goods wagon on the way to Podanur.
• The British crushed the revolt by early 1922; it also turned communal in places, which weakened the national movement.
Do not mix these up
• Moplah Rebellion vs Eka Movement — Moplah was in Malabar (Kerala), 1921; Eka ("unity") was a peasant movement in Awadh (UP), 1921–22, led by Madari Pasi.
Also asked from this topic: the region of the 1921 Moplah Rebellion (Malabar); what drove the prolonged Mappila uprisings (harsh land laws and oppression by landlords).